AS I SEE IT 11/18: Remembering Eddie Guerrero eight years later

AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
It was eight years ago this past week that Eddie Guerrero left this world.

I first met Eddie Guerrero when he came into ECW in April 1994. There have been few within wrestling who’ve ever been genuinely nicer, or more approachable to fans than the Guerrero I got to know. I remember saying to a friend once that Eddie “always seemed to have a smile in his eyes”.

To this day…one of my most vivid ECW memories was the farewell show for Dean Malenko and Eddie on August 26, 1995. This may well have been the best match I’ve ever seen for the overall emotional experience combined with the actual match itself anywhere in wrestling. While Dean and Eddie worked better matches in ECW and in Japan, the sheer emotion of the toughest crowd in North America not to mention the fans, locker room, and Dean and Eddie themselves in tears, accompanied by Joey Styles doing the match call of his life as Guerrero and Malenko worked their last ECW match.

If you ever get the chance to get a DVD or an old VHS of the ECW TV August 29, 1995 show that featured this match, it is a classic and an absolute keeper. But I wish any of you reading this could have been there in person; because, as good a job as Styles’s call and Heyman’s editing did in communicating the feeling one had being there at the Arena that night, it could never do it justice entirely.

Eddie was a kind, decent man who remembered his friends. The most notable example I was able to see was that of Brian Hildebrand, who was remembered and supported on more than one occasion by Guerrero. I remember being the post-show bar scene at a WCW house show, when I saw Guerrero saying a prayer over his post-show meal…thought it was odd, and then later that night found out about Brian’s cancer.

I also remember the night in 1998 when WCW honored Hildebrand with a night dedicated to him in Knoxville, TN, with a classic match of Chris Jericho/ Eddie Guerrero against Dean Malenko/Chris Benoit… and with Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen presenting Brian with a championship belt, then getting Brian involved in the finish.

For my brother and myself…and undoubtedly for many, many others; the fact that Eddie was clean and sober…and had been so for some time makes Guerrero’s passing that much harder to deal with. Guerrero was a man who’d found God, dealt with his demons, worked on his addictions to alcohol and other drugs being taken by God with so much to live for.

So shortly after the eighth anniversary, Eddie, we still remember…

Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year will soon be here. The Christmas movies have started. Your friendly not-so-local retail mega-store has been killing trees to print advertisements to sell us iPad, IPhone, or iSomethings, along with the latest game killing bad guys, zombies, or whatever, for our kids or ourselves.

Back to the spirit of the season…. the wrestling community is reaching out to those in need. Independent promotions hold a wide variety of events to benefit various food pantries, shelters, Toys for Tots drives.

Over the years, promotions in my area from the family-friendly United Wrestling Coalition to the hardcore themed Combat Zone Wrestling ranging to indies of various sizes and types trough the United States and Canada. Even if you don’t have one in your own area this Holiday season, please take time to contribute to or volunteer with such organizations.

These promotions have agreed so far to do Toys for Tots and charitable-themed shows during the Holidays (and shortly before):

Ju\t bring in a new toy for a boy or girl for admission!Help us help these kids have a great Christmas.

To the UK….The professional wrestling business has a proud tradition of charity work, and raising money for good causes; and on Sunday 24th November 2013, this continues; as we stage a show, and a raffle, for Cancer Research UK, at Seaton Burn College, in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Here are all the details, and information you need to know, for this evening of fun, fighting, and family entertainment that you will not want to miss!

Doors open at 6:45 pm for advance ticket holders. Doors open at 7 pm for everyone else. Bell time is 7:30 pm

We are very happy to announce we will once again be collecting new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots at the door of the event this year!

We are also very happy to be collecting items for the Boys & Girls Club’s “Feed the Hungry” program. This includes non-perishable food items that can be used for kids & families that may not have enough food in the pantry to make it through some weeks or weekends. Please help by bringing a food item with you to the event if you can.

ECWA will be doing its second annual Toys for Tots show on Saturday, December 7 with Toys for Tots II in Newark, DE at the Greater Newark Boys & Girls Club, 109 Glasgow Drive, Rt 40 & #1, Positive Place Newark, DE.

PLEASE join us and the United States Marine Corps as we collect unwrapped, new toys for our annual Toys for Tots toy drive. PLEASE BRING A TOY!

The original promotion in the Philadelphia area (to my knowledge) to do Toys for Tots style collections with United Wrestling Coalition holds their 17th annual Toys for Tots (this year, as an Operation Santa Toys) show on December 7. At the December Toy drive show, the only reserved seating will go to those pledging a new bicycle donation. One new bicycle will get you five reserved seats – front and center for a night of the absolute finest pro wrestling action and community involvement – all designed to place toys in the arms and smiles in the hearts of very well deserving children. The December 7 show will also feature many door prize/raffle items – a family tradition that UWC has been carrying out for 17 years! For more information, contact UWC at 609-792-9328 or friend us on Facebook – we are Real UWC NJ.

Dynamite Championship Wrestling returns to Milford, DE on December 14 in a Toys for Tots show
EVENT BENEFITS THE KENT/SUSSEX COUNTY DELAWARE MARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION. ALL TOY DONATIONS MUST BE BRAND NEW & UNWRAPPED.

~INTERNATIONAL HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP~
“3RD GENERATION SUPERSTAR” LANCE ANOA’I (vs) (C) “THE NEW STANDARD” CORY KASTLE
“Lance is returning for the first time since his injury at the Honor Cup suffered at the hands of Kao Storm & Cory Kastle. Lance has vowed to extract revenge on Kastle and to win his first Championship in DCW, the Undisputed Championship!”

~PPW CHAMPIONSHIP~
(C) “A+” AKEN PEMBROOKE (vs) “2013 KING OF MARYLAND” SKULL
“Skull was originally scheduled to compete in the 2013 Honor Cup but was unable to due to a death in his family. Seven months later, Skull finally gets his chance to wrestle in front of the DCW & PPW fans; this time with that chance being for the PPW Championship!”

GENERAL ADMISSION IN ADVANCE= $10.00
GENERAL ADMISSION AT THE DOOR= $12.00
CHILDREN 4 & UNDER FREE W/ADULT

“No video to be taken without written permission of 3D Productions, Dynamite Championship Wrestling, Power Pro Wrestling or the Carlisle Fire Department.

This event is Approved by “The Delaware Department of Regulations #219″

DJ Hyde and Combat Zone Wrestling have agreed and plans are underway for the annual Toys for Tots collection (in conjunction with the Marine Corps Reserve) to take place for the ninth year in a row to have Combat Zone Wrestling and the 15th annual Cage of Death on December 14 at The Flyers Skate Zone, 601 Laurel Oak Road, Voorhees, NJ with a 7:30 pm bell time. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or online.

For those who purchase their tickets online, will gain early access at 4 pm for a FREE CZW Q&A!

So as I ask promotions and readers each year, please e-mail any announcements about scheduled Holiday charitable-themed (fund-raisers for clothes, food pantries or Toys for Toys, etc.) wrestling or MMA events to bobmagee1@hotmail.com.

Until next time…

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